Olav KOOIJ. 10 and honors. An extremely chaotic sprint, but the 24-year-old Dutchman finds his way, especially the right position. On the right side of the straightaway, well protected by the barriers, while the others struggle along the center of the road. Olav does it all by himself, also because his Decathlon is here to escort "le petit garçon" Paul Seixas. It's his first Tour and on the noble finish line of Pau, host city for the 77th time, he also inscribes his own name. He beats all the strongest sprinters in the bunch, all with stages and green jerseys to show off: Merlier (3 stages), Philipsen (10 stages and one green jersey), Pedersen (3 stages), Girmay (3 stages and one green jersey) and Gaviria (2 stages): on his debut he pulls off an upset. He's a debutant, not an amateur.

Max KANTER. 8. For the 28-year-old German, a place of absolute honor. His XDS Astana is here and puts him in the best position. Everything perfect, everything by the book. But there's someone who does it better than him.

Tim MERLIER. 5.5. He's among the most anticipated, even though he's one of the sprinters most penalized by the crash at the -5 mark. But he's still Merlier, he's still there in the zone. He loses, and badly at that.

Huub ARTZ. 6.5. The 24-year-old Dutchman gets a foot in there up front. In this convulsive final sprint, his number almost comes up.

Jasper PHILIPSEN. 5. He's a prodigy, here in Pau he was the last to win. Today he's not there, he arrives with his legs crossed. I'm not saying it, he is. And that does him credit.

Mathieu VAN DER POEL. 5. Nobody talks about him and he absolutely doesn't make himself talked about. Strange, because the Dutchman is a rider who knows how to put on a show and races for that. A simply underwhelming start to the Tour. Today too he finishes 122nd over 2 minutes back: that's not like him. Indeed, it seems almost like Van der Poel isn't even there.

Biniam GIRMAY. 5.5. He's now an experienced rider, but today he loses his bearings.

Mads PEDERSEN. 6. He has the green jersey on his shoulders, but today his goal was also to try for a repeat. He brings home a 7th place that, in the end, can be fine anyway.

Milan FRETIN. 6. The Belgian from Cofidis tries to insert himself into the final contest. He does it with intelligence and brings home a good placement anyway.

Fernando GAVIRIA. 4. Lost in the meanders of the group.

Baptiste VEISTROFFER. 9. He's the first to attack today. For the 26-year-old Frenchman from Lotto Dstny, this is his 13th breakaway of the season (over 2,000 kilometers already covered on the attack). A restless man who loves to be alone. He stays there for a long time, in weather conditions that are anything but favorable. Needless to say, the red number today is his. And not because of sunstroke.

Kelland O'BRIEN. 10. Yesterday the 28-year-old Australian from Melbourne finished outside the time limit. This athlete deserves full honors for wanting so absolutely and so strongly to finish the stage. Dropped, completely dropped, he wanted to cross the finish line. He could have thrown in the towel, climbed into the team car avoiding a slow-burning agony, but in any case a burning one. He chose to arrive at the finish line with the last drop of sweat, to honor the greatest race in the world, to honor his sport, to honor the Jayco AlUla jersey and all of us: he arrived at the finish line beyond the time limit which was 37'37", while Kelland came in 46'02" after Mads Pedersen.

FRENCH TV. 4. I don't know who the director is or where he comes from, given that he struggles to make the race understandable to us poor "couch potatoes" it's likely he doesn't know where he is either: spending five hours in the control room with air conditioning is not the same thing, let's say. The Pulitzer Prize for "fleeing the news," in any case, is rightfully his. He didn't document the three crashes in Saturday's team time trial, the next day he blithely ignored "the drama" of Isaac Del Toro left in the middle of the team cars. Bravo to the unknown director and the visually impaired consultant at his side: today too, the yellow jersey group was blithely ignored, as if anyone cares to see the big names behind the breakaway rider every now and then?